Workcamp Gorlice

Polen

Workcamp Gorlice – Searching for traces and exploring the Carpathians
"The Carpathians belong to no one" – this wild mountain range, which stretches across five Central European countries, combines untouched mountain landscapes with remote towns and villages on the edge of Europe.
At the same time, it bears the traces of a dramatic and often bloody past.

In May 1915, just a few months after the start of World War I, both the Entente (France, Russia, Great Britain) and the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) still hope for a quick victory.
In Gorlice, in what is now southeastern Poland, this hope erupts into one of the great battles of the war: the advancing Russian army suffered a devastating defeat.

But victory came at a high price.
Within a few days, more than 140,000 soldiers on both sides were killed or wounded – a grim foretaste of the suffering and devastation that the war would bring in the years to come.

Today, numerous small war gravesites can be found in the former battle zone, nestled in the impressive landscape of the Carpathian Mountains.
They appear as silent memorials that have fallen out of time.

Join us on a search for traces in a little-known part of Europe.
Discover forgotten war gravesites and contribute with your work to preserving them as places of remembrance and peace.